Estonia least religious country in the world...

I have spoken about this a lot before but up to now the only statistics i have had to link to are in estonian not a problem for me but hard to use for others..

Check this link out for an indication of how much religion (not just Christianity) is important to Estonians or rather how marginalised religion is in Estonia...

(Interestingly a survey of 1000 people is more representative the smaller the country considering the size of Estonia its a biiig sample)

Thoughts about May... June... July... August

May in a paragraph...
Arrived back from Canada --> Bibledays (awesome time) --> youthAlpha X2 ---> planning meeting for next bibledays---> planning meetings with Norwegian ywamers about august camps in Lõpe and Vandra--- > Social regeneration project in Lõpe with swedes ---> Youth meeting with Tallinn and Tartu youth groups ----> Baptisms ---> the place (youth outreach show) ---->  prep for Gig with worship band in shopping centre for child protection day (01.06)

So May is done gone finished, June is here summer was here more in May to be honest and now we have 3 months of madness June we have this week to sort everything out for Alari and Katrins return from Canada one week without any guests from abroad then until mid July back to back visitors :) summer is great fun then next set of guests UKx10 they are here for a week then Norway x 60 then Kata and Jott get married sister in law and new brother in law-in law...

Then August the BIIIIIG outreach village tour for at least 2 weeks... Pray for energy, rest and resources for the summer especially resources/support for the tour we are aiming for 14 villages x roughly 100 people (1400 people for the mathematically challenged) who will all be served with a quality musical event and all hear the good news, get healing, get direction & if all goes according to plan start to follow Jesus and get connected to a local church...

If you feel like you would like to help financially or with some kind practical help please get in touch we love that we are not in this alone being here and look forward to this summer of mission...

Welcometoestonia... in Canada

So right now we are over in Vancouver, Canada as you might have gathered having a break and visiting Maarjas mum and dad (Katrin and Alari) who are over here on a sabbatical (of sorts) Alari is currently the pastor at Vancouvers United Estonian Baptist Church...

Its really interesting seeing the Estonian minority who came here as refugees during the second world war (to escape the "liberating" USSR), so far we have spent a lot of time visiting Alari and Katrins new friends, speaking Estonian (and getting lots of compliments for speaking Estonian) eating Estonian (sült which isn't too popular in Estonia nowerdays), singing Estonian folk songs and so on... The local Estonians are almost more Estonian than the Estonian Estonians who live in Estonia :)

The Estonian churches (Baptist, Lutheran and Orthodox) here all conduct traditional meetings in Estonian and the baptist church seems to be wrestling with how to move forward and reach out, Alari is doing his thing stirring things up (english language outreach etc) Its interesting that national culture and national identity have been such a key part of the church here and have shaped the churches model to such a large degree, for a country with such a small population but such a strong national identity all expressions of national identity become so much more precious, its means a lot to the first generation of Estonians here that their children and grandchildren know that they are Estonian and speak Estonian...

Vancouver is beautiful and the people are great, very friendly, very caring, very generous, and very kind... very Estonian and very Canadian which is a good combination.

hyperprolactinemia

OK, so one of the bigger bits of news that we have kinda mentioned in passing but not gone into much detail over is Maarjas illness, the illness is hyperprolactinemia and here is a quick overview of what we have been through so far...

(Background, as a voluntary worker in Estonia and as an Estonian national Maarja does not recieve free healthcare or discounted prescription medications, I paul do however as a British Citizen doing the exact same)

1. January 2008; Maarja misses several periods, takes several pregnancy tests and has lots of "pregnant" symptoms (at this time Maarja is on the pill and stops taking the pill just in case)
2. March 2008; we go to a clinic to talk about what is going on, ultrasound shows we aren't pregnant, blood tests show abnormally high prolactin levels leading to a diagnosis of hyperprolactinemia (not very nice) and a prescription of bromocriptine (not nice stuff)
3. Thoughtout 2008 and 2009; Maarja takes bromocriptine on a cycle of roughly 6 months taking it (leading to reduced prolactin levels) and 1-3 months not taking it (leading to prolactin levels shooting back up), we receive lots of prayer for healing sometimes coinciding with new improved blood results, sometimes not (we trust and believe and pray God will heal us to this day)
4. February-March 2010; while we in the UK for a conference having just had bad blood results in Estonia and not having made it to pick up a prescription, we go to my GP and have a chat, he sends us for bloodwork and is generally shocked we haven't had an MRI, after a slight mix up with a nurse allowing us to believe for a whole weekend that everything was fine again, we get results showing high prolactin and further tests are done to show its not due to stress or anything along those lines (this one does get the imagination going how do those clever doctors find out if blood cells are stressed or happy). so anyway this leads to an MRI appointment which takes a month, MRI results take quite a while (the NHS is on a mission to save the post office as far as i can tell, someone should mention to them that email is really quite ok) and they come basically a few days ago... whoops...
5. April 2010; our lovely GP gives us a call to ask if we can pop in for an appointment (we happen to be in Canada and explain that its quite a distance) our GP tells us that Maarja does have a tumour (microadenoma, prolactinoma) but it isn't cancerous and we should go to see a endocrinologist...

So, please pray, we are committed to being in Estonia and right now we don't want to go back to England we are praying about September but we want to make a wise decision and not leave people shorthanded getting something sorted quicker than is needed

a blog about blogging

just a quick post to say that we are going to resurrect our blog (its a good season for resurrection), its been a long time since we wrote anything anywhere about what we are doing, where we are doing it and why, when we came back to England in February we wrote briefly to say we intend on blogging to keep people up to date with our news, its now April so like always this is well overdue!

Estonia and the Salt&Light Nordic Region Conference

Yes i know... My blogs are like buses none for ages and then 2 come at once...

Just a quick one! A prayer request / financial need

On the 20th-22nd of November in Östervåla, Sweden the Salt & Light Nordic Region has a conference! We (Me, Maarja and Alari) would really like to go and strengthen our relationships with Salt & Light churches near to us and see and hear what is going on in Salt & Light in the Nordic/Baltic Region!

We don't have money in our budget to get there the tickets are in total around 60gbp + buses at both ends (roughly 100gbp total)! 

If you feel that you could help us get there please pray about supporting/sending us there! it would be a massive blessing and a wonderful birthday present for us all (Me, Maarja and Alari are all November babies)

God Bless

Paul & Maarja & Alari

Estonia Update (overdue as usual)

Greetings,

As many of you will know we spent much of the summer in the UK for my dads wedding and my brothers 18th! September and October are now past which means you are well overdue an update the good news is we have been really busy here is a what we have been up to since we got back!

• PowerPlace (youth club):  Since we got back we have been getting back into the rhythm with our little team and leading worship, preaching, praying, planning and the likes, the youth group has grown a little in numbers and some of the young people are really stepping it up and getting much more into God which is awesome!
• Youth worship band: The youth worship band has been really blessed the last few months the church did its second guest service this time with the youth band leading worship and doing a performance song, in preparation for this the band have been doing 3 practices a week and writing, translating and learning new songs (1 practice a week has been in a professional practice room which we somehow get to use for free (praise God) which has been really really good to get an understanding of where we are at)
• Sunday mornings: For the weekly meetings Maarja has started doing a church newsletter to help keep the church informed etc the youth band leads worship every week and we occasionally preach the church has been hearing from God lately about a “next level” and chewing over as a family what we can do to take the church to the next level.
• Small groups: The girls groups are both going nicely and the boys have found a common passion for nerdy computer games (praise God) so the boys group is starting to get together regularly (praise God)
• Prayer Breakfasts:  Have been faithfully continuing and we have a really good core group of church members get together for fellowship and pancakes every Saturday
• UK trip: We had a great time in the UK, it was good to catch up with lots of you and my family! While we were over I did wedding photos for my dad who insisted on paying and for the money I somehow managed to get a 800gbp discount on my dream guitar which was such a massive massive blessing  (praise God)
• The Place (outreach): In October we had the place which is part of the reason for the lateness of this update we had loads of little problems but in the end it all worked out (including glow in the dark dancers) we had about 400-600 young people in the local concert hall! I ended up doing sound! We also had a tight deadline for writing and handing in a project to get financial support for theplace from the council we made it by the skin of our teeth and will find out soon if we will get support for the second year running!
• Guest meetings: the second guest meeting went well we had around 20 guests and lots of positive feedback the next guest meeting is in 2 weeks and apart from a change of venue everything is coming along nicely
• Celebrate recovery:  On Thursday evenings we have committed to helping Alari with the running of celebrate recovery with a group of mostly homeless and ex homeless men which is a challenge for us(we enjoy it alot) but is going really well.
• Personal life: Maarja is working full time with the church (until/unless another non-secular job appears that could work alongside church) and we now have one free day a week (praise God) lately church has been a big blessing and is changing from a place where we give out a lot and don’t get much back from to being a place we really get filled up and encouraged at! (praise God)

 Prayer points for the next month then...

1. Continued provision (on Gods terms)
2. PowerPlace is every Friday and prayers that we can provide a place for people to belong and grow in and that we can teach our young people well in, We really want the youth meetings to be filled with the power of God! And to see more and more young people getting off the fence
3. Prayer Breakfasts are a big step of faith for us as we are feeding a big group when our finances are tight so provision and continued spiritual growth for the church
4. Health! We have both been ill lately and we can’t really afford medicine on a regular basis (missing the nhs) so it would be great if we could be healed and not fall ill :)
5. The church is looking into investing for the first time in over 15years in some new sound equipment as the 15yr old second hand sound system is on its way out pray for provision and get in touch if you would like to help the church financially with this…

Please pray about supporting us financially if you feel that might be something you might like to do, Even what may seem like a small amount each month helps us out massively and is a huge blessing to us and the church here, if you feel you would prefer to support specific needs financially in the church please feel free to get in touch about what they might be and how you might help

Thank you for your support and prayers
God Bless

--
Paul and Maarja Davidson

Karja 1-4
Pärnu
80018
Estonia

+372 55539978 NEW mobile#

+3724474759 NEW Landline

paul.andrew.davidson@gmail.com

PS. We are now set up with Stewardship so we can claim gift aid on support given to us and get extra money from the UK government on top of your support! Attached are all the details you need to register to support us via Stewardship!

PPS. Here is our online album

 

Estonia Update...

Greetings,

This might seem exceptionally late (even by our standards) but for half of May we were in the UK and the last update went up to the time at which we left Estonia so this is kind of an on-time (by our standards) update for the running month of May-June lets call it Mjune for the sake of clarity.

Mjune has been very good, we have been keeping busy and clocking up some respectable mileage and in Mjune we had a really encouraging and… interesting time in the UK,

So anyway here is our quick list of what the church, youth and we personally have been getting up to!

• PowerPlace (youth club): Summer is here, and to celebrate the fact that we now have sun, long days and youth with a 3 month break! We have started "a summer of adventure" which is much more catchy in Estonian (honest)… So we have been doing bbqs, football, swimming and meetings on the beach etc each Friday which has been really good so far…
• Youth worship band: The youth band is on a break as everyone is working for pocket money over summer so me and Karl have been doing acoustic worship on Fridays.
• Sunday mornings: Me and Maarja have been leading simple worship all month... Risto has been leading a series on our relationship with Christ which has been really good…
• Small groups: The girls groups are both going nicely and the summer and Euro2008 have been good for the football group its not very formal but its happening regularly and since we have so few boys we have to play with strangers lots which is great
• Prayer Breakfasts: While we were in the UK we got inspired to instead of talking about wanting to be a praying church to start opening our home on Saturday mornings at 9am to do breakfast and prayer with the church its been going great each week more and more people have been coming meaning this week we face making pancakes for up to 20 people which should be fun.
• UK trip: We had a great time in the UK we went to a lovely wedding and managed to cover 11 different cities in 10 days we were really encouraged by so many people and got to catch up with family some whom we hadn't seen since our wedding and some who we hadn't seen for even longer, We also experienced something strange everywhere we went we seemed to be in the middle of road works and noise (bar our lovely break in Scotland) we had near constant headaches, we really felt God was telling us that Estonia(and its peace and quiet) is the place for us right now and that God was hardening our hearts to England (which believe it or not I sometimes miss)
• The Place (outreach): Mjune has been a mixed month for The Place team straight after we got back we put together a show for another local church which went well and at which I was both the MC and the lead singer (BoB is not quite dead) but also 2 events have fallen through this month with the first one the school whose garage we were promised changed their mind at the last minute and the second was a tour for which we couldn't get a band in the end! In some ways it's a blessing in disguise as the place team is small and work very hard so these events not happening allow for a much welcome break for the team!
• The Bus: The Bus is not up and running yet and we don't exactly know what we will be doing with it yet but in July expect more news about it!

Prayer points for the next month then...

1. Continued provision (on Gods terms)
2. PowerPlace is every Friday and prayers that we can provide a place for people to belong and grow in and that we can teach our young people well in, We really want the youth meetings to be filled with the power of God! we are continuing "Jesus Season" but at outdoor and generally more summery locations with a cut down preach more testimonies and acoustic worship
3. Prayer Breakfasts are a big step of faith for us as we are feeding a big group when our finances are tight so provision and continued spiritual growth for the church
4. A Job for Maarja! In August we are in England again for a longer period (family weddings etc) and Maarja had a word previously about non-secular employment so we took a leap of faith and left a month sooner than we would have had to giving Maarja July free but meaning when we are back Maarja will be looking for a more fulfilling and meaningful job
5. The situation with the church and the old hall is still in a big mess pray the God will guide the church leaders and provide whatever it takes to solve the dispute (wisdom, money, a free lawyer)

Please pray about supporting us financially if you feel that might be something you might like to do, Even what may seem like a small amount each month helps us out massively and is a huge blessing to us and the church here, if you feel you would prefer to support specific needs financially in the church please feel free to get in touch about what they might be and how you might help

Thank you for your support and prayers
God Bless

--
Paul and Maarja Davidson

Karja 1-4
Pärnu
80018
Estonia

+372 55582557
paul.andrew.davidson@gmail.com

PS. We are now set up with Stewardship so we can claim gift aid on support given to us and get extra money from the UK government on top of your support! Attached are all the details you need to register to support us via Stewardship!

PPS. Here is our online album

Update... yes i am still alive...

A lot has been going on recently here in Pärnu with guests in the church this last month from Sweden, Greece, Finland, Malaysia, Germany, The US and the UK and with more to come next month from at the very least the UK (arriving in time for our joint birthday party) there has been lots to do!

Me and Maarja have been settling into and settling back into our jobs respectively and have been getting used to spreading our wings, being married, playing concerts, living together, cooking, cleaning, paying bills etc and have been getting stuck in together at Sool Ja Valgus working with the young people and getting stuck in with the worship team.

We have been very blessed with a wonderful apartment which is rent free (Thanks to Alari and Katrin) which is allowing us to both work part time and still have enough to cover the bills and feed ourselves and enough time to invest our time in the young people and the church.

We have also had the patter of tiny feet… shocking I know… WE ALREADY have mice! And not just mice… Super-mice, mice who steal mouse traps and whom we have been feeding 3 bags of poison a week to no avail! This has led us to make a rash decision and to decide that we would rather spend our rat poison money on a more joyous solution… We have adopted a kitten… Bosa… who we hope will solve our problem once she grows a little…

It has been quite a humbling experience for me to take a paid job out here, despite my Estonian being good enough for conversations and day to day needs it isn’t perfect and my Russian language skills are still non-existent both of which have limited my employment possibilities considerably

I have however been blessed with a job at a good friend from churches business… a car wash so I now earn pre-tax 21.5eek per hour (about 95p) and although the cost of living is lower here, proportionally (taking into account wage differences) the cost of living is more expensive..

Prayers for God’s continued provision and blessing on our lives would be much appreciated

God’s provision this month has been so incredibly visible, we have run out of money about 5 times (only having had left over English wages and left over gift money from the honeymoon and setting the apartment up) and every time just before we switched to a potato only diet (potatoes being in season and hence costing 20p per kilo) we have been given money or vouchers or food from friends and family without having to ask (anyone other than the big J), its been a lesson in worrying less and trusting God for me as every time we got low on cash I worried up till the last cent and then gave up and accepted that we need God to provide for us! At which point without fail, bam God provides..

Speaking of which we have been invited on a missions trip to Mongolia/China next summer which we both feel really excited about and have been praying about but we urgently need Provision for.. our wages here are enough… enough to cover our bills and feed us we have no money left over to save up for big things… like flights all the way across the world.. We need about 800gbp to get our flights and another 1200 to cover internal travel, food and other expenses for the trip the 1200 we don’t need until we go but the 800 grows with every month we can’t afford tickets.

We had in our hearts set aside my tax rebate which should be with us in a month or so to pay for one of our tickets but sadly this weekend my laptop decided its likes green! That is to say that it doesn’t want to display any other colours most of the time! It seems to be a connection issue to my mind but on the advice of 3 computer shops the only way to fix it... Is a new screen which would cost about 300gbp + labour which is slightly more than the value of the laptop

So it looks like that plan is out the window and I instead need to replace the laptop first as without it we lose contact with friends and family back in the UK and lose the ability to help out with the video and image editing which the church needs…

Anyone you know who is in a position to and of the inclination to bless us please encourage them to and pray that God will blow us away again this month with his incomprehensible massiveness, his father love and provision

Stay in touch

God Bless

Maarja and Paul

Time consuming business

OK so the last week i have been fairly busy... i made it to Sweden by the grace of God and the support of some excellent people and Scandinavian airways (i will explain later) and got back on Thursday last week, had a school tour on Friday to promote bible days (a multi-denominational gathering of christian young people which happens yearly (this was my 3rd))
We performed on Saturday and will be uploading the video at some point today the show was awesome we finished with amazing grace a rocked up but very congregational version with the crowd 5-7hundred young people singing on long after we left the stage.. for an encore we prayed for everyone from the stage...
So anyway Sweden first i guess, i had a brilliant time in Sweden really beautiful place and i got to see my really beautiful fiancée... oh yeah.. i proposed to Maarja while i was out there.. and she said yes :D
Which brings me nicely onto what is oh so time consuming... wedding preparation, not that i am complaining i am 100% over the moon to be spending time designing invites making clever spreadsheets on Google documents and sending out e-invites watch your inbox :D but its all filling up my day quite nicely...
Scandinavian Airways saved me from bankrupting myself to get to Sweden and buy a ring by overfilling my flight and taking volunteers to take the next flight one hour later for 250EUR compensation and 75 Swedish Kroons to buy some food in the airport.. Totally a blessing from God.. i was facing going overdrawn to eat this week before i came home to England and bam we are looking for volunteers to take money from us :D cant get much better than that it means my flights to Sweden where effectively including the money i got given by generous friends and relatives free :D

God Bless and see you soon
Paul Davidson


My fiancée Maarja Theresa Allikas

Motivation

I guess in a way its fairly funny for me to be writing this, I am going to write (a little) about motivation or rather my recent (last 2 days) lack of it... And my blog is one of the things i find it hardest to want to do (but ironically i want to today)...
The last few days i have had a fair bit to do... which is good... But the bad bit is that i haven't had very much motivation to get any of it done...
This week i have needed to re-edit a bunch of videos and set up the play list for the place: next step in Torva, We decided to take the same show but with a new name and image to bless the youth work which we have some links to...
Using the same programme is great... it means the play list will be real simple.. as soon as i get the rest of the stuff all edited and compressed.. which i now have about 8hours to get done.. (That would be 8hours without any sleep) I got a little bit done today but it took 3 days to decide to do it...
So yeah early morning tomorrow... no wait.. today! we are heading out to Torva to do some promo in school to try and whip up a crowd for the event in the evening..
The good news... (and at the same time the bad news for my bank balance) is that i booked some flights to go out to Sweden to visit Maarja for a week so i will be going straight up to Tallinn after the event and early Friday morning flying out then getting familiar with Swedish public transport for a while and in the afternoon seeing Maarja :D
So for the next week i will be working on a ship in Sweden..
Prayer points then... Motivation obviously and energy... Pray that everything comes out well at the show and that i make it to Sweden safely and i don't get lost between one of my 10 minute train connections... Also keep praying about my finances my overdraft is pretty much finished now and although i have been blessed to receive some financial support which is absolutely incredible and i couldn't be going to Sweden without it.. my finances are still going to be at a stretch to keep me fed until i go home.. (and yes even when you are my size you still need to eat)
God Bless and please feel free to give me any tips for getting motivated when your mind is stuck on other things...
Thanks

Paul Davidson

the background image which the slides are based on for the event tomorrow... courtesy of Mihkel Peterson

Epic blog - Part one - This blog is like a typical English bus… you wait around ages for one and then 3 turn up at the same time…

Hey, so sorry to everyone who feels a little bit left in the dark about how things are and what I have been up to the last few weeks it was my intention to keep this up to date and flowing this time so that if and when you got that I” wonder what Paul has been up to feeling”(not 100% confirmed to exist) you could pop over and find out what I need prayer for and how our prayers had been answered..

Long story short the reason I have not been online is absolutely, breathtakingly, gobsmackingly brilliant but I am going to explain that in epic-blog part 2 (sorry) this part (part 1) is to let you know what I have been up to “work” wise and just in terms of life in general..

• 23^rd Friday night youth meeting sang in worship team
• 24^th my memory is a bit foggy but I think I just chilled in Pärnu
• 25^th Sunday meeting sang in worship and went to meet with lots of English people over from England in Tallinn
• 26^th I think I hung out with the English girls showed them the sites a little and helped them change money
• 27^th Handed out fliers with English girls ready for the place
• 28^th As Tuesday but with worship practice in the evening
• 29^th lots of last minute play list tweaking ready for “The Place”, full practice/run through and sound set up at church
• 30^th lots of post practice tweaking on videos for “The Place” (big youth outreach) which went great 2 people got saved everything went smoothly for a change BoB played all round good fun
• 31^st relaxed a little and slept in hung out with the band a bit and Maarja a bit then traveled to Turi for another gig there which went well had lots of fun despite having a sound tech nightmare the show was well received and we prayed for everyone at the end
• 1^st lead worship at church, ate and rested
• 2^nd Took English girls back to Tallinn on the bus showed them the city a bit then took them to check in, after check in I hung out with Heigo for a while and ate Turkish food
• 3^rd Did nothing of significance as far as I recall... Possibly grilled with the youth at Papsaare
• 4^th Adventure trip to a village called haademeeste (good men) on the bus which consisted of 2 churches, a beach meadow (grass next to the sea), an outdoor stage and a closed museum… evening worship practice followed by a trip to the theater
• 5^th 7am flyer production for soon arriving Swedish young people (more specifically the Friday event) trip to Allikas holiday home at Kastna for a break with Kata, Maarja, Me and Mattheus
• 6^th came back from Kastna midday and got ready for “the place underground” handed out flyers etc (Christian youth meeting) including Swedes from salt and light much fun and lots of new faces
• 7^th Swedish fun and games at the beach with some new kids from the night before followed by winning at football, eating lasagna, watching basketball and eating Indian food… midnight Easter meeting
• 8^th Easter church meeting, sang in worship then left to Tallinn with others to send Maarja to the ferry (Sweden till June)
• 9^th cable and adapter shopping and coffee drinking etc with pets in Pärnu then bussed to Tallinn to return Kristjan his school bag books etc from the day before
• 10^th chilled in Tallinn met up with (soon leaving) Canadian friend Steve ate pizza and watched 24
• 11^th chilled in Tallinn with Kris worked on new bob song watched 300 (which is very good)
• 12^th went to Tallinn city centre to buy some adapters for the sound equipment and get the bus to Pärnu ended up traveling in by lorry as a met a lost German when I was buying my bus ticket so I directed him where to go in the passenger seat… in the evening went to Torva played guitar in worship and preached a little in Estonian 4 young people got saved
  

So basically it’s been pretty eventful and by no means have I written everything I don’t remember 100% and some things I remember very well but they would considerably extend part 1 and completely ruin part 2 it’s been a fun few weeks, packed full with answers to prayers…

To summarize for you incase your memory is as rusty as mine, we had been praying for the place for sometime and it went great bar a few financial issues a total success, making a change to the way we arranged worship finally happened was a big personal answer to prayer as before we didn’t get to practice which is something I surely need… part 2 is all about a massive answer to prayer for me something I have been seeking god for over about the last 5 years… basically one of my most common prayers is for a interesting, eventful and fruitful day and over the last 3 weeks I have had a lot of those…

One new prayer request would be that God would take my finances in hand despite his provision after the loss of my wallet I am starting to feel the squeeze and indeed I am not sure if I will make it home with my relationship with my bank in a healthy condition so please pray that I will use my remaining money wisely and that I will get work as soon as I get back into the UK to start sorting my overdraft…

My reading has fallen a bit as I have been so busy and tired I am keeping up the bible reading but not at the level I would like to be I am not currently on track to finish before I am home...
God Bless
See you in Part 2
Paul

BoB @ Turi - Giving our all

Epic Blog - Part 2 – The exciting part

So this section is as I mentioned all about a huge answer to prayer it is also probably the most significant piece of news you will have ever read on my blog (not such a big achievement but hey it really is big)…

For the last 5 years I have been praying for and waiting for God to give me someone to be with in this life… a partner in crime, a girlfriend and long term… a wife

And in fact about a year ago I was fairly sure he had as I started to have feelings I hadn’t had before for Maarja Allikas (the pastor’s daughter)

4 weeks ago tomorrow me and Maarja went on a long walk and talked for ages we ended up sitting in a castle (children’s playground variety) and talking frankly about how we feel about each other… We decided to pray and seek God until the Wednesday…

3 weeks and 2 days ago we spent the day together and I asked Maarja on a date in the evening, we went out for a meal and walked home in the dark afterwards I don’t think I had ever been as certain about anything before as I was about this and I still feel the same way…

The last 3 weeks have been without a doubt the most incredible of my life, it has been so amazing that its hasn’t felt real at points it’s been like watching a movie... On the second day of our relationship we went out in the middle of the night and sat on the roof while the young people all enjoyed a sauna and swimming in the still icy lake, we sat there and watched the stars together and talked I don’t think I ever saw so many shooting stars or wanted anyone to know me so completely ever before…

The next day me Alari and Katrin (Parents of Maarja, SV Pastor and his wife) went for a long walk to talk about me and Maarja and despite it being fairly intimidating and just the plain difficultly of explaining in Estonian things I could barely express in English it was good, and apparently they were really pleased with me for initiating talking with them… I had been warned before hand by Kata to expect a lot of mention of marriage which there was I am fairly sure they had a bet to see who could mention it the most times in the duration of our conversation… it didn’t bother me..

The relationship so far has been by no stretch of the imagination conventional, we have been living under one roof for quite some time before we started dating (due to me living with her family) more conventionally but with a different reason during the first 2 weeks we spent as much time together as we possible could…
Around Maarja working, us having lots of foreign guests around and me having lots of events which I had to work on or perform at we managed to get quite a bit of time together… and the time we spent together has been awesome we have been on random bus journeys to seaside meadows took a trip to the holiday home to get some space watched shooting stars together and learnt with each other how to be a couple in different situations..
That was until Sunday on Sunday we went to Tallinn after church for the sole purpose of taking Maarja to the ferry to Sweden...
Maarja is in Sweden until June working on a mission ship over there…

In 3 weeks I will be coming home to Derby until September to work and save meaning we could potentially face 6 months without seeing each other right at the beginning of our relationship I am currently trying to get out to Sweden to see Maarja before I come home (despite the financial difficulties mentioned in part 1)... We both miss each other enormously I can honestly say I have never missed anyone like this before, these feelings are so new and I haven’t felt most of them before about anyone…

Despite the forced distance in our relationship at the moment it has been so incredible to think about how easy it would be for us never to have met and indeed for me not to have been shaped into the person I am had I never come to Estonia, Gods plan is mind-blowing we are so similar and I am so glad God has put me with someone who suffers from the same itchy feet as me and wants to go with God to the world on his call and lead someone who is spoiled and cant settle down for a 9to5 life…

Please pray that we both learn from this time apart and that we allow it to strengthen us individually and as a couple and that we keep God at the centre rather than how much we miss each other…

God Bless

Paul

missing her...

Epic Blog - Part 3 – Missing the point

So I don’t normally blog in this style but this blog is all about Easter and more to the point why I haven’t enjoyed Easter very much this year…

Easter this year has felt like a huge celebration of corporately missing the point…

I do appreciate that different people like different styles and that it would be unrealistic to expect myself to enjoy everything every other Christian enjoys simply because of one common thing (albeit a huge “thing”)

Why in charismatic free churches not tied down to traditional... well traditions do we make a big deal over Easter…

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think that the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are a small thing, I appreciate totally how humungous the message of Easter is and in fact that is the very reason why I think its ridiculous to have one time each year to celebrate together and remind each other (over and over) than Christ is risen…

Yes granted He is risen but He was risen at Christmas as well and at any given day of the year for somewhere in the region of the last 2000years (give or take)

The fact that Christ died for me (and you) and is risen should be (in my opinion) the thing that fires us up EVERYDAY not just at Easter…

It shouldn’t just fire us up it should set us apart the fact that we have been set free should be the thing that defines us as Christians it should be what we are known for as apposed to the very visible gathering together in an almost mournful manner at specific dates dubiously ordained in a way that appears as the opposite of freedom..

Maybe you had a brilliant Easter and I don’t want to make you down or worry you about anything if you enjoy Easter and all that it entails then great but it feels so wrong to me inside out that I have to vent it to keep myself sane…

Since I am free I think that next year I might avoid Easter I might find myself a cave to hide in while people quietly contemplate that which should rightly be their every thought, that which should sustain them and inspire them everyday… That which should excite them… I will pray that maybe it will excite them so much that they break with the tradition and exercise the freedom that they accepted into their lives when they accepted that the price has been paid and go out and live differently EVERYDAY live free… free from the man made tradition of having a set time to celebrate the masterpiece or our salvation…

But you know… whatever

xxooXoOxXo

I know this may seem negative and I really don’t want it to be... I may not seem it but genuinely from the bottom of my heart I am very very very happy and all the little things over Easter which rubbed me up the wrong way are little things…

Maybe someone wise could explain to me why free Christians should be so institutionalized so traditional and why the pillar of our religion is more important at one time each year because frankly I clearly just don’t get it…

God Bless

Paul

p.s. for those of you interesting in such things and for some light relief happy easter in estonian in Head Munadepuha translated literall Good Eggs Holy hehe

Church/midnight/Easter *sigh*

Woop...

OK so i am not going to go into detail about anything for a while but i have experienced a massive answer to prayer and i am plain and simple over the moon, God is Good...

Pray for Wisdom, Guidance and that things will work out well these next few days as its a bit of a crunch time potentailly...

In other news... The Place Prep is kinda scaring me a bit.. we have the ideas solidly in place for the video but ideas are not a fun part of a show without the work being put in to make them a reality... long story short we have had some actor fatigue a lack of a camera and now one actor/director/camera arranger hanging out in Tallinn "Because its fun!" not seeming to appreciate that a week is not long enough to edit 4 videos...
Its also a little bit scary right now because the place always tends to pull together at the last minute which is never anything but nerve-racking and this time even more so.. no-one has so far done what the intended as far as i know so i guess we will be having a meeting soon to check people still intend to get everything done as for me i am going to be stuck behind my laptop for a week as soon as i get myself stuck behind a camera (which we still dont have) for a day
On the topic of the posters i have done them.. i am not that lazy the only problem is i have produced 4 posters so far each being admired for its beauty but in some way felt to be flawed enough to warrant a re-design so i am currently re-working the latest which will be printing at the weekend for deffinite...

Well Pray for me as much as you can,

God Bless

Paul

Almost 2 weeks... Oops...

Right ok so i kinda promised to keep this much more up to date and well.. umm.. yeah that hasnt gone too well just lately... sorry about that.. Google is telling me 9 people looked here last week.. so especially sorry to you if that was you...
OK So anyway whats been going on the last few weeks?.. I have mostly been working on various different bits and bobs for "the place" which is now only a few weeks away.. the posters and flyers are going to print soon and we are shooting videos from tommorow meaning last minute speed editing again :( the newsletter i mentioned before is finished and being checked over by elders just incase they dont like my tone or i missed anything important etc...
But all going well that should soon be going out to various places in england and america i will keep people up to date and once its all approved i will whack it up on the web somewhere and point you all in the right direction (hopefully)
I am going to break with convention a little bit today and not be so exhaustive... partly at least because i am... (exhausted that is) and partly because its been so long i cant remember that level of detail... needless to say the last few weeks have been fun and followed pretty simalar patterns to the weeks previously...
But just for fun lets talk abit about my recent media consumption...
A few films i have recently diggested lately...

Children of Men (2006) - Utter tripe dont watch it unless you get forced to...
Hot Fuzz (2007) - Very very good, bit violent colourfull language but very very funny...
The Nativity Story (2006) - Decent, nicely done (think the passion minus stomach turning excessive violence)

some music which i am currently a bit addicted to includes...
Mute Math, Brand new, Anberlins new album and Relient K's latest offering... check them out :)
I will update sooner than last time next time i promise...
God Bless

Paul



Helver, Taaniel & Kairi (awwwwww)

Camp, English people and TheraFlu

Hey
So as promised i havent updated for a while and i would just like to take a moment to forewarn you that this blog may not be up to my usual standards in terms of usage of english (not that that means much) basically i am ill, tired and pretty dosed up but we will get to that later...
So since i last (properly)updated...

• Weds - Went to the gym and learnt i can squat with 130kg on a barbel on my shoulders, started some conceptual stuff towards promotion of the place
  
• Thurs - went up to tallinn and hung out with our english visitors (Karina, Kezia Rosie, Emma) for a while and later brought some new shoes...
  
• Fri -left Pärnu for the church camp out in the wilderness
  
• Sat - church camp with guest speaker Karina Martin, started to get ill and came home with Kris, Krissy and Maarja
  
• Sun - church in the afternoon with lots of post camp testimonies, Karina preaching again and lots of general good stuff, Made fire lots to keep the house warm... got slightly more ill
  
• Mon - Took Rosie and Emma to town to eat with Karl while Karina and Kezia went skating and horse riding then went home and chilled... got slightly more ill as did Kezia, Karl, Kata and Alari
  
• Tues - chilled out at home all day due to illness by this point the whole house was ill! Maarja starting to get better, Alari with a temperature of 38, Me feeling better but looking worse (apparantly) Karl just sleeping and Kata staying locked away in her room
• Today - went to town thinking i had recovered (and aware we needed more drugs and water at home) and started to finish this entry in a cafe over pizza at which point i realised i had a headache and couldnt focus or finish my pizza so came home and napped for a while...

So yeah, The camp went really well its always so exciting to see things click for people and to have things click personally... The church is really inspiring as despite the age distribution being a bit bizzare (about 6 people where present at the camp over the age of 30 with the vast majority being under 18 (making it seem a bit more like a youth camp)) everyone really works together and the family atmosphere is brilliant, Karina was great and shared some really important messages as well as giving out a fair few prophecies and lots of encouragement (as did Kezia, Rosie and Emma)
It been pretty annoying to be ill and now (tonight) i really do feel over it mostly which is good as we have a consert this weekend i started today to put all of the place videos up onto youtube which finally allowed me to set up an account for Oma Koht so once i have that all in order i will share the link with yourselves, the idea is concrete now for the advert video which we will need to shoot and edit in record time next week and i am setting myself a deadline to complete the posters which are at the moment only an idea and the newsletter tonight however long i have to stay up as i want the newsletter to be able to happen monthly and we wanted to have the posters for the place up well in advance for a change...

If you could find time in your prayers for the health of the household and myself and that i can crack on with things tonight and this weekend that would be much appreciated!

So on that note i am going to love you and leave you (to get cracking on the forementioned)...

God Bless

Paul


Hayley, Rosie, Emma, Kata & Maarja in Tallinn

Who says LTGs can't meet at 2am?

They can you know...
and it works... and it's good...and I'm tired...
Just thought i would share that nugget of wisdom/foolishness with you all (yes both of you)
I have to get up soon...
Night Night
God Bless

Paul


Outside is pretty...

My best blog ever (today)...

Hoping this one will work first time after last times mess... OK then so the week just gone,

• Wednesday - Valentines day guest meeting at SV - Fun but a bit of a technical nightmare
  
• Thursday - Worked on newsletter (not finished but looking good IMHO)
  
• Friday - Went up to Tallinn arrived quite late so just played computer games and slept
  
• Saturday - BoBs longest ever practice? Practiced a large percentage of the day, had a worship session afterwards followed by a bit more practice, a sauna at about midnight and cake and burgers afterwards to celebrate Jaanus's birthday (no i didn't get much sleep that night)
  
• Sunday - Back to Parnu only to shoot of to Lihula the small village i mentioned before to meet and introduce myself to the church.. it wasn't to painful but i have a large number of questions and kinks in the plans to work out now and going to the church didn't reduce the quantity... Back to Parnu in the evening for the Guys meeting.. had 2 new guys talked prayed and sauna'd which was great
  

OK so exciting bits, reading progress and prayer requests then....
BoB seems to be as a band taking things more seriously! We are restarting planning what we say in between songs again which always has a positive effect on the quality of the message which we share, the practice was good i remembered how to sing so hard that i lose my voice (which might not sound like a positive but while my voice lasts, improves the sound tenfold) we worked on a new song which is exciting and worked out some new intros which we can convert to songs hopefully at some point... and most of all we had a great time together as a band praying and worshipping...
The newsletter is coming on nicely which i am pleased about because normally when i am doing design work on the laptop i get distracted and decide to check out myspace or BBC news or.. well anything but getting my head down really.. and while i was working on the newsletter this time i didn't experience this which was nice for a change...
The Guys group is growing which is nice to see so quickly and on the back of no real physical attempts to bring more people in just praying and inviting, pray that it continues growing so naturally and that we can really work on each others character's and pull each other up on our issues..
Reading then, I am in the last tiny bit of Organic Church now and i strongly recommend reading it, Mine will be passed on to Maarja tonight when i finish it and when she finishes it it will be on to Alari but if you would also like to read it then you can form an orderly line and we can work something out (as in let me know)..
I have got rid of the backlog which i had built up with the daily bible which means i am back on track for finishing inside the three months.. Its proving beneficial (i feel) to be reading in a more structured manner for a change helping me basically by just not giving myself a choice about picking up my bible and taking time to just read and seek God...

So anyway Prayer wise this week is going to be quite packed, I start on the posters and ad materials for the place outreach meeting tomorrow and start on some video pre-production work for the same thing as well.. so pray for focus i guess... Thursday i am going to Tallinn to meet Karina, Emma and Rosie (who are coming for the camp) and to hopefully find some new shoes (which don't absorb water from the sole).. Friday till Sunday pm we have the church winter camp so pray that everything goes well with that and that everyone has a great time that we can grow together...

That's about it i guess.. So i will probably update on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday next week...

God Bless

Paul


everything i learnt from zoolander

Ramble, ramble, ramble

It been a while since I updated which is due more to apathy than busyness for which I am sorry, I have been cracking on with my reading organic church is getting close to being finished, which is good because it means I can pass it on (it has its own little waiting list now!) and the backlog (one year bible reading wise) is shrinking and shrinking as I am making at least my four days worth a day each day now...

So what have I been up to since last time I updated? I hear you ask...

Well here are the key points (blogger managed to destroy this post once already, wasting all the info I did want to share! these are the bits it saw fit not to eat up and or turn into random links)

On Friday a substantial bunch of the young people trekked up to Tallinn as I mentioned for a big meeting... Personally the meeting wasn’t me or maybe (again) I was too caught up in my own mind to get into it... But a lot of young people turned up who were very on fire and you could tell God was working on so many people and filling people up which is never bad...
Even though I didn’t enjoy the evening as much as I no doubt would have could I have experienced it without getting too lost in my thoughts it had some pretty exciting results and has given me and pets a lot to do and consider...
I and Pets both realized how useful better sound equipment would be to the youth work and the church as a whole as what we have at the moment is really impractical and lacking quality... meaning we often have to beg and borrow equipment from others when we want to put anything on...
We also had some exciting conversations in the evening about trying to drum up more funding for the youth work and outreach shows which we put on as finance has always been a bit of a limiting factor, so it sounds like we are going to start putting a bit more effort into arranging our events and giving people and local business a chance to help us out financially which is most definitely needed... (This linked in a bit to trying to improve how we give out information about what is going on another kick for me to get on with getting a newsletter running!)

Sunday, church was good, I was asked to sing at the last minute which normally throws me a bit but which went well... Boys group was really good we prayed for a big list of people who have fallen away from church and various non Christian male friends who we want to reach out to in a more effective way than we have been so far...
After boys group me Karl and Pets took a sauna and had some really good accountable conversation which led me to suggest (in broken Estonian) that us 3 could be an LTG and keep each other accountable each week which was well received and hopefully will be something we can introduce in the boys group once it picks up momentum...
Today I am doing some reading and working on a design for the newsletter and hopefully some content...
Plan for the rest of the week....

• Wednesday - Torva youth work down south

• Thursday - finalize draft for newsletter and show to Alari etc

• Friday - Back to Tallinn possibly for some BoB practice and song writing...

Sorry for the ramble I really need to keep more on top of this (or just learn to only write the interesting bits) thanks again for your prayers the wallet still hasn’t turned up but my new card is at least on its way over to me so I should have some money again soon....

God Bless

Paul

Me walking on the water under the bridge